Hi all,

See below for details about an upcoming conference on the 1915 Clydeside Rent Strikes and their continuing relevance: https://1915rentstrikesrediscovered.wordpress.com

Best wishes, Neil

Dr. Neil Gray,
School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, 
Room 521, East Quadrangle, 
Main Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ
http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/ges/pgresearch/neilgray/#/researchsummary
https://1915rentstrikesrediscovered.wordpress.com

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100 Years On: Rediscovering the 1915 Clydeside Rent Strikes 

When: 10.00 - 17.00, Saturday 28th November
Where: Kinning Park Complex, by Kinning Park Tube, 40 Cornwall Street, Glasgow G41 1AQ: 
Getting there: http://www.kinningparkcomplex.org/contact-us/contact-kpc/

With the emergence of industrial capitalism, and the decline of the landed aristocracy, Keynes envisaged the ‘euthanasia of the rentier’ across the economic spectrum. Yet, with UK manufacturing in seemingly terminal decline, rent has returned with a vengeance. In particular, housing market speculation is now central to capital accumulation, producing disastrous social effects: the subprime crisis, housing privatisation, rack-renting, spiralling house prices, mortgage debt, gentrification, foreclosure, eviction, displacement, homelessness and over-crowding. 

With the political economy of housing increasingly resembling the situation of 100 years ago, re-interpreting the 1915 Rent Strikes is an urgent necessity. Since community struggles over housing, social reproduction and consumption - typically undertaken by impoverished tenants and residents without funding or institutional support - have often been poorly recorded and analysed, rediscovering the rent strikes has much to teach us in the present era.

With the present housing crisis in mind, contributors to a forthcoming book on the Rent Strikes (co-editors, Neil Gray and Sarah Glynn) will explore new historical interpretations of the Rent Strikes and their present relevance. These presentations will explore rent strikes beyond Glasgow, eviction struggles, housing privatisation, rent, the case for public housing and a range of contemporary housing struggles. They will be followed by Q and A sessions and a facilitated round table discussion on the contemporary housing question. We are interested in how a re-interpretation of the Rent Strikes can contribute to current housing struggles. This is a conference for academics and activists and anyone else who is interested, and presentations will be accessible without specialist knowledge. All welcome. 

The venue is wheelchair accessible, and a vegetarian lunch will be provided. We regret that no crèche service is available, but parents are welcome to bring their own children. Please contact us with any special needs and we will try our best to resolve them (Contact: Neil Gray: [log in to unmask]; Sarah Glynn: [log in to unmask]).

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SCHEDULE

10.00 - 10.30: Greetings and Refreshments

10.30 - 10.45: Introduction

Session 1: 

10.45 - 11.00: Pam Currie - ‘A Wondrous Spectacle’: Discourses of Protest, Class and Femininity in the Rent Strikes and Women’s Wartime Protests

11.00 - 11.15: Annmarie Hughes and Valerie Wright - What did the Rent Strikers do Next? Women, Politics and Housing in Interwar Scotland

11.15 - 11.45: Discussion

Session 2: 

11.45 - 12.00: Tony Cox - ‘Oary’ Politics and the Dundee Rent Strikes

12.00 - 12.15: Neil Gray - Spatial Composition and the Resurrection of the Rentier: The Rent Strikes and The Housing Question Redux

12.15 - 12.45: Discussion

12.45 - 13.45: Lunch

Session 3: 

13.45 - 14.00: Vickie Cooper and Kirsteen Paton (Kirsteen present) - Everyday Evictions in the 20th Century 

14.00 - 14.15: Sarah Glynn – ‘Only Alternative Municipal Housing’: Making the case for Public Housing then and now

14.15 - 14.30: Living Rent coalition - Rebuilding a Shattered Housing Movement: Contemporary Tenant Struggles in Scotland

14.30 - 15.15: Discussion

15.15 - 15.30: Tea Break 

15.30 - 16.45: Roundtable Discussion: Where Now for Housing Struggle?


* Full list of contributors to the book: Pam Currie, Annmarie Hughes and Valerie Wright, Terry Brotherstone, Tony Cox, Vickie Cooper and Kirsteen Paton, Tom Slater, Stuart Hodkinson, Scottish Living Rent coalition, Neil Gray, Sarah Glynn